1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to a portable urinal apparatus, and more particularly to a portable unisex urinal apparatus for directing an individual""s urinary waste matters into a toilet bowl allowing the individual to remain standing while avoiding contact with the toilet, and reducing the incidence of spillage on the outer surface of the toilet or the surrounding area.
2. Description of Related Arts
No one likes cleaning a bathroom used by men, especially in and around a toilet. That is because often, when a man urinates, he may miss the toilet bowl, hitting the toilet seat or around the toilet. Similarly, a man intending to urinate while standing, while using a traditional toilet, may not raise the toilet seat before urinating because he has a physical handicap preventing him from bending over, thus leading to spillage on the seat.
A boy or a man waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom may be too sleepy, and may not be paying attention and miss. Or, he may remember to lift the toilet seat before using the toilet in the bathroom, but forget to put it back down, causing him great embarrassment when his mother or wife comes in later to use the restroom in a similarly groggy state, and falls in the toilet.
In public restrooms, both men and women would prefer not to touch the toilet when they urinate for fear of germs. This is especially true when they notice drops of liquid on the seats. For men using a traditional toilet, if they urinate while standing, again, this may result in spillage on the toilet, further dissuading others from touching the toilet. For women, fear of touching a public toilet results in their discomfort as they are forced to squat over the toilet while trying to avoid touching it. Similarly, this may create a risk of missing the toilet bowl, and further contaminating the toilet seat, and again, dissuading others from using the seat. For either men or women, a dirty seat cover may prevent either of them from sitting down on the toilet seat and adding to their discomfort.
Commercially, small companies cannot always afford to have urinals and toilets to prevent this problem. In many instances, each bathroom has only one traditional toilet, and in an especially small establishment, there may be only one toilet for both men and women. Thus, the problem of a dirty toilet seat cover is not only important, but also very common.
Also, as a result of these misses and near misses, in both public and private restrooms, cleaning not only becomes more difficult, but undesirable for those who clean. In a private setting, this may lead to increased germs and risk to family members. In a public setting, this may lead to local health code violations resulting in possible fines, closures and, at the very least, negative publicity. In society, an apparatus has been needed that is an economical and convenient way of converting a traditional toilet to a urinal without requiring extra effort on the user of the toilet, or extra expense for the provider to provide a consistently clean, and convenient bathroom facility.
Furthermore, there is a common headache happened when he needs to go to the bathroom in the midnight for nearly every middle-age man. Most men, especially after 40 years old, need to wake up in the midnight to clear their bladders. Due to the fact that most men"" penis are in the erect condition while sleeping in the midnight, especially when he has a full bladder of urine, it is not only very troublesome for one to walk to the bathroom in the middle of his sleeping, but also difficult to precisely deliver his urine into the toilet bowl. It is because the urethra opening of an erect penis is pointing upwards and the toilet bowl is positioned below the male sex organ. Every normal male, including children and adult, should have the experience of the difficulty of aiming the toilet bowl with his erect penis. It is painful and may hurt you if you try to push down your erect penis to aim at the toilet bowl. In fact, it is a quite embarrassing fact that no matter how he tries hard, it is still nearly impossible for him to prevent spilling his urine around the toilet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,632, issued to Esswein et al, describes a standing urinal including an upper mouth piece which can engage both male and female users and has a handle, an intermediate urine container in the form of an elongated tube with volumetric graduations and a plugged lower end, and a lower telescopic leg having a rubber stopper at the bottom end for frictionally engaging a support surface, wherein the main object of Esswein et al is to provide a standing urinal primarily which would be used by a seated or standing individual while urinating and which is essentially self-supporting, or standing, and not needing to be held.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 485,960, issued to Martin et al, suggests a water closet attachment having a top opening, U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,248, issued to Kelly, teaches a stand up training potty female toddlers which does not have a urinal bowl to collect the toddler""s urine at all, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,953, issued to Lee, describes a disposable male urinary incontinence device for wrapping up the male penis completely.
Since the ""632 patent is designed to be used by a seating or standing individual without the need of being held by the individual, it merely provides an upper mouth piece with a top opening for the user to directly place his penis above the mouth piece and urinate therein. Although an addition deflection hood can be detachably attached on the mouth piece as shown in FIG. 6 thereof, it still needs to leave a top inlet mouth opened on top of the mouth piece so that the user can downwardly drop his urine therethrough into the mouth piece. Since the ""632 patent standing urinal is merely designed for patients who are not convenience to go to the restroom and use the toilet bowl so that they can urinate while seating or standing near their beds, the diameter of the mouth piece or the top inlet mouth is much smaller than the toilet bowl. Therefore, every male child or adult may still have the problem of aiming the relatively small top opening or top inlet mouth of the standing urinal of the cited art. Of course, how to prevent splashing and spilling around the urinal during urination is not the main concern of the ""632 patent.
In other words, the ""632 patent is used for collecting urine wherein the user""s non-erected hanging down penis is all right to aim at the mouth thereof and deliver his urine into the container. However, when a male person urinates with a full bladder of urine when his penis usually is semi or fully erected, the erect penis normally has a length up to five or more inches long and a diameter up to 1 and a half inches. Moreover, his shooting angle is between 45 degree downward and 45 degree upward and his shooting speed is very strong too. To focus urinating into a portable urinal apparatus has to be easier than to focus into a regular toilet bowl, otherwise people will not bother to use it in the restroom. Practically, it is impossible for an erect penis to completely deliver all the discharged urine into the container as suggested in the ""632 patent.
Also, the diameter of the top opening of the ""960 patent must be much smaller than a toilet bowl. If a man or a kid has the problem of spilling and splashing all over the regular toilet bowl, Martin et al is totally helpless to a male who want to urinating with a full bladder and erected penis.
Besides, both Lee and Kelly are only designed for a patient to urinate while lying on bed by inserting the entire penis into a tubular thin rubber sheath or condom. It is not suitable to be used in bathroom so that it fails to prevent splashing and spilling around the urinal during urination in the bathroom.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a portable urinal apparatus for converting any conventional toilet to a urinal, keeping the toilet and its surroundings clean by limiting errant discharges of urinating men.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable urinal apparatus which provides a catch basin having a wide side urinal opening at one side of the catch basin to enable the user to place his erect penis into the interior chamber thereof. The catch basin of the instant invention can easily and efficiently absorb the urine thrust impact when the user is urinating out a strong jet without any splashes and spilling. It is especially useful at night when the user is waked up by the strong urgent need that his penis is generally half or fully erected upwards. It is almost impossible to aim downwardly to the toilet bowl. However, the user can easily insert his erected glans penis in the interior chamber of the catch basin and urinate without the worry of aiming the toilet bowl or splashing and spilling all over the toilet bowl.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable urinal apparatus that allows a business to use a conventional toilet as a urinal, thus allowing the business to save the cost of having a urinal and toilet.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable urinal apparatus to aid small children in their use of the toilet and avoid errant discharges on and around the toilet.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable urinal apparatus for aiding men and women who cannot bend down to sit down or lift the toilet seat a way of urinating without creating a mess on or around the toilet.
Lastly, another object of the present invention is to provide a portable unisex urinal apparatus for allowing a woman to use a conventional toilet without having to sit on it or squat over it.
In order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a portable unisex urinal apparatus, which comprises:
a catch basin defining an interior chamber, having an urinal opening on a side adapted to allow an individual to urinate into the catch basin, a outlet opening on bottom of the catch basin for the exit of any fluids in the catch basin, and the bottom of the interior chamber sloping downward towards the outlet opening;
a supporter integrally connected to the top of the catch basin; and
a discharge tube connected to the bottom of the catch basin, wherein the outlet opening of the catch basin aligns with the discharge tube for the removal of fluids from the catch basin to a toilet.
Moreover, the catch basin can be curved to reduce splashing from the urinating fluids. Also, the edge of the catch basin underlining the urinal opening can be made thicker to prevent spilling of any fluids.
In addition, the discharge tube alternately is attached directly to the side of the toilet bowl, or be adjustable in length to be used for various toilets, or for a single toilet. The interior surfaces of the catch basin and discharge tube can be further comprised of a slick coating material to allow fluids to slide easier within the catch basin and down the discharge tube.
The portable unisex urinal apparatus can further comprises a mounting apparatus for mounting the apparatus to a wall for easy swiveling over a toilet bowl for use, and against the wall when not in use. The apparatus may also be further comprised of a holder for supporting the freestanding apparatus, or for transporting the apparatus.